Refuge Within the British Lines

Dr James Mackay explores how Black freedom seekers found refuge with the British Army during the American War of Independence.

The American War of Independence (1775-83) was a period of large-scale upheaval and change. Amid this chaos, enslaved people hoped that fighting for the British would ultimately result in their freedom. In the short term, however, they sought and often gained refuge from slavery. The British military became the institution which, albeit inconsistently, offered that protection.

In this striking talk, Dr James Mackay will chart the journeys of four Black freedom seekers – Boston King, David George, Dinah Archey and Judith Jackson – to examine how refugees from slavery forged alliances with the British forces and fashioned themselves as Black loyalists.

Dr Mackay will show how a series of British military proclamations inspired enslaved people to reach British troops. He will then demonstrate how Black refugees recast and reshaped these proclamations. By the end of the war, they had been transformed into documents of both refuge and liberty, allowing Black freedom seekers to flee their enslavers and begin new lives.

About the speaker

James Mackay 

Dr James Mackay is a Teaching and Research Fellow in American History at the University of Edinburgh. He received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2023 for his thesis titled ‘”What They Call Free in This Country”: Refugees from Slavery in Revolutionary America, 1775-83’, which he is now working on turning into a monograph.

His research has been supported by fellowships from institutions including the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the University of Michigan.